blue_dolphin

Your comment reminds me that when my brother moved out of the college dorms into an apartment, his first call home for cooking advice had to do with chocolate eclairs. My mom recommend he make cream puffs first and put a pastry bag and tips in his Christmas box!

No, I think they are really out there. Google led me to quite a number of articles recommending cookbooks for uni students, most published in the fall when students are usually heading off to school.

Interesting. I didn't even realize there was a significant genre of cookbooks targeted to university students. The book that Priya Krishna wrote while at Dartmouth, Ultimate Dining Hall Hacks (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is the only one I'd heard of and didn't really put it in the cookbook category.

From the Herbdacious chapter in This Will Make It Taste Good, I made the Juicy & Bright Citrus Salad p 227. I used a mix of pink grapefruit, blood and navel oranges with some kumquats thrown in for fun. I wasn't sure how a roasted garlic-based herb pesto was going to work as the main ingredient in a dressing for a citrus salad but Vivian did not steer me wrong. It works very well. One of the "No Brainer" ideas for Herbdacious is to slather it on corn on the cob, steak, chicken or fish so that's what I did with a piece of salmon before broiling it. Also works well!

I use this guidance, shared by our dearly departed Limoncello Queen, @KatieLoeb I've used regular Eureka lemons, Meyer lemons, limes, grapefruits and oranges.

Over here, @lindag mentioned roasting for 40 min. Seems like a long time, but I suppose the steam would prevent it from drying out.

My, but I do seem to be posting to this thread a lot! I'm still working on the Citrus Shrine chapter and today I made the "Fish in a Bag" p 144, an oven-baked fish in parchment paper with spinach and quinoa to make it a complete meal in a bag. The name is especially appropriate to my effort since, unlike the artful photo in the book, mine really did look like a lunch bag, maybe one fished from a dumpster! Here it is, plated: The tahini sauce that looks completely smooth in the book photo (and was, going into the oven) is rather more baked and slightly broken here but still delicious. Honey makes the sauce a little on the sweet side. I figured the salmon I used would be able to handle that but would dial it back with a more delicate fish. Likewise, 12 min at 500°F, in my oven was a bit much and I'll likely lower the temp a bit next time but the parchment keeps things moist so it was still good. To go along with the same flavors, I used some of the Citrus Shrine preserved lemon to make a preserved lemon butter to anoint the asparagus. For the butter, I used a recipe from Gabrielle Hamilton's Prune, available online here, though I only made 4 oz instead of 2 lbs!

Thanks! I took that one right after I took it out of the oven. It was bubbling so deliciously, I was tempted to take a little video and figure out how to turn it into a GIF! As mentioned above, that Cherry Tomato Baked Feta...Surprise is supposed to be served over fish. The shrimp I was seeking earlier decided to reveal themselves in the freezer so I sautéed a few in butter and tossed them with a little LGD. That would have been a fine dish right there, over rice or orzo maybe, but I went ahead and topped them with the tomato/feta bake. I'm still not sure I'd want this over a more delicate fish, but it worked nicely with the shrimp - these were big U-15's.

Maybe cook up a batch of R-Rated Onions from This Will Make It Taste Good? 🙃

Does that use manzana chile peppers (I love them!) or apples?

It does have some tang but just isn't quite as puckery as I'd like. It uses both lemon juice and orange juice so one could go with all lemon to boost the tang. On the upside, it's not as tooth-achingly sweet as some lemon desserts can be. Also from the Citrus Shrine chapter is this Margarita with Salt Inside p 155: This one simmers preserved lime rind and pulp with sugar and water to make a syrup. It's 1:2, sugar:water, so less sweet than a standard simple syrup and has salt and funky notes from the preserved citrus. The cocktail has either tequila or mezcal, the syrup, plus fresh lime and orange juices. No triple sec or other orange liqueur. I am not a fan of salt rims on margarita glasses but I do very much like the savory flavor that the syrup adds. I made this first with kumquats and now with lime. The kumquat version was stellar. I might chop up another piece of lime and simmer this syrup a bit more to boost up the flavor. Or maybe add a couple of those limequats I preserved. I've also tried both tequila and mezcal. Without the competition of an orange liqueur, the mezcal flavor comes through nicely. Fun fact: I learned that Pechuga mezcal supposedly acquires some of its flavors from a piece of raw meat that's set up to hang inside the still, above the liquid. Fruits, nuts and other ingredients are also added. This particular brand uses turkey breast. Note the colorful turkey on the label, surrounded by pictures of fruits and nuts: It tastes spicy and fruity, not smoky at all. I did not taste turkey but honestly, I was trying not to think about it! Going back to the Little Green Dress chapter, I made another batch of the Cherry Tomato Baked Feta...Surprise! p 25. This stuff is so good. I'm happy to just spoon it on to hot, crusty bread and wash it down with some red wine. I was going to serve it over fish, per the recipe, but I forgot to pull that out to thaw and was getting hungry so figured I could pretend this was like the TikTok baked feta and used it as a pasta sauce: I liked this but the LGD adds quite a bit of acidity so some might prefer to dial back on the amount of LGD used. That, or add some protein like chicken, shrimp or garbanzo beans, which I think would balance it out.

Ooooh - can't wait to see the food photos!

Well, I convinced myself that I should improve my lighting so I've ordered myself a pair of little lights (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). I will report back.

You clearly have plenty of equipment and photo knowledge. I'll just clarify for others that for low-light photography of still subjects, like food, you'll get the best improvement from better lighting and a steady camera and like @TicTac said, it's mostly personal preference. In SLR days, I was a Nikon person. Switched to Canon for digital.

In my defense, I did read the question, particularly noting this: @JoNorvelleWalker can spend all her camera budget on a new camera but without proper lighting, it's not going to do its best work while a modest investment in lighting can make all the difference in the world!

Still in the Citrus Shrine chapter of This Will Make It Taste Good, I made the Rock Me Don't Shake Me Lemon Pie p 167. I made a half recipe in a 6" pan. WRT to the book photo, I'd say that citrus rind was not cut into "very fine strips" nor was it whisked into the the custard. It also looks like more than the amount called for in the recipe. I reserved some of my citrus rind and sprinkled it on top before going into the oven but it still sank. I should have trusted my instincts that blind-baking a crust direct from the freezer at 325°F for 12 minutes is not sufficient to properly cook the bottom crust so you can see it's not done. Edited to add: I usually blind bake @ 425° for 8-10 min, then remove the weights and put it back in the oven 'til the bottom starts to brown. The custard is nice, I liked the combination of lemon and orange but the flavors are more mellow than tangy and I like tangy. Probably not something I'll make again but I do like the idea of using preserved citrus rind in desserts. The texture is just a little chewy, like a candied rind in syrup but without the candy-like sweetness and during the cooking time, the saltiness seemed to diffuse through out.

In my opinion, good lighting is as important as the camera for food photography. Unless you already have these items, I'd earmark some of the budget for a dedicated light, a reflector and maybe a light box. Plus a tripod of some sort.

They're good reads and some of them generate a phenomenal # of comments. I like that they don't feel bound to present a single, "best" recipe at the end.

The flat rate shipping @ $10.99 for any size order is quite reasonable but yes, if you're ordering stuff that needs 2-day or overnight, it gets $$$. As seems to be the case for almost everyone except rainforest giants.

Following @Anna N's post about their toast & jam piece, I've been trolling through The Guardian's "How to Eat" articles. In their Tuna Melt essay, they recommend going with acidic mix-ins (gherkins, capers, pickled hot guindillas, brined green olives, etc) saying, "In a melt, acieeeeeeed is the way to go. You need that low pH action to offset, punctuate and cut through all that mayo and melted cheese oiliness." Clearly, Little Green Dress fits the bill here. I pretty much followed the recipe for Tuna Salad Snack Crackers except for being more generous with the LGD. Per The Guardian, I used a nice sharp cheddar. Not sure I've ever made a tuna melt before. Maybe tried one on an English Muffin? Clearly not memorable, but this on was and I will make it again. Most importantly, it let me use up the can of tuna I opened solely to treat my cat to the juice in order to apologize for trying to bisect him with the closet door 🙃

Tuna melt? 🙃

The Citrus Shrine p 140 that I set up towards the end of January is about ready to use. The grapefruit and some of the bigger oranges still need a bit more time but the rest is good. I'll note here that I probably won't combine so many kinds of citrus in one jar as rooting around for the citrus you're looking for is annoying. Separate jars or maybe combining 2 easily differentiated types will be my preference. Today, I made a meal out of the New Leaf Pilaf p 152, an oven-cooked rice & black bean dish, and Autumn's Crunch Factor Slaw p 147. I was going to sauté some shrimp but they were being shy and hiding in the freezer and I was hungry so I went with the vegetarian option. It ended up being a nice contrast between cooked and raw uses of preserved citrus. The pilaf has preserved lime rind that gets cooked along with everything in the oven while the slaw uses preserved orange rind in the dressing. The slaw contains apples, sweet potato, beet, scallions and pickled ginger while the dressing includes the preserved orange rind, mayo, sour cream (I used yogurt), sugar and cider vinegar. The Cosmic Crisp apple I used was quite sweet so I reduced the sugar to 1/4 the amount specified. Unless I was using a super-tart apple, I'd leave it out entirely. After tasting, I doubled the amount of pickled ginger and preserved orange rind. I skipped the salt and added some of the orange pulp, chopped up, and a few drops of the brine to taste. Vivian suggests rinsing the beet strips several times to avoid bleeding. I did that but also dressed the beets separately and combined them just before serving. The beet dressing was still quite pink so keep that in mind if you want to keep the colors separate. I liked the use of non-traditional slaw vegetables here and it does indeed have a nice crunch. Should be good with other vegetables like kohlrabi, jicama, radish, carrot, etc. The pilaf is quite easy, just sauté raw rice, cumin, garlic and preserved lime zest in a bit of oil to toast the rice and let the aromatics get started. Then add the beans, broth and chopped cilantro stems, bring to a simmer and put the skillet into the oven for 30 min. It gets a drizzle of olive oil around the edge of the pan and a few minutes on the stovetop to crisp up the rice on the bottom. I used Rancho Gordo midnight black beans instead of the canned beans specified so I had to cook them first but once the beans are ready, this is super easy. I would make both of these again.

And in a small fraction of the time!

Advice? I prefer the description, "1,500 words of painfully verbose, serio-comic riffing" offered in an earlier entry covering mushrooms on toast.

I've used the recipe for Tía Carmen's Flour Tortillas in Josef Centeno's Amá and like the way they come out, though I need to work on getting them properly round 🙃 Ingredients are: 1 cup all purpose flour 1 T lard or bacon fat 1/2 t baking powder 1/2 t salt 1/2 cup whole milk, warmed